Republic of Maldives

The Republic of Maldives is a small south Asian archipelagic state.  It has a total land size of 298m2, and consists of approximately 1,190 coral islands, grouped in a double chain of 26 atolls, spread across roughly 90,000m2.  As well as being Asia’s smallest country, it is also the world’s most geographically dispersed country.  The islands were traditionally difficult to navigate and the first maritime charts were only produced in 1836, later maps have been produced with input from satellites. 

The reason why the Maldives (as the country is more commonly known) is of interest to a 500-word blog on coral, is, of course, because the country is composed of live coral reefs and sandbars.  An atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef, surrounding a lagoon, with channels between islets connecting the lagoon to the open sea.   The Maldives landmass is of coraline origin – highly complex structures.    Most of the islands are flat and sandy, with often a rocky bottom made up of coral rock conglomerate.  The round islands sometimes have a muddy or marshy middle.  Islands may disappear when currents on the reef change, and new islands may also appear.   The Maldives are now renowned as holiday resorts with particular emphasis on diving.  Human intervention on the islands may also cause changes to patterns of currents.

Coral is made up of hundreds to thousands of tiny coral creatures called polyps.  Each soft bodied polyp secretes a hard outer skeleton of limestone, that attaches to rock, or the dead skeletons of other polyps.  Coral reproduces by spawning, by producing small bundles of effs and sperm which get released into the water for external fertilisation.  Fertilisation happens overnight.

Global warming and ocean acidification caused by human activities since the industrial revolution represent a serious threat for coral reef ecosystems.  Higher sea temperatures have led to many significant large-scale coral bleaching events

I went to the Maldives in 2013.   We flew from India in a couple of hours.  We landed in Mahe, the Maldives’ capital island.  Strangely Mahe is a ‘dry’ island, because the main religion in the Maldives is Sunni Muslism, non-drinking religion – the strangeness that such a huge input to the country’s economy is based on hedonism... and nothing to do with coral.

Next day we went by seaplane to our hotel ‘island’.  We had a cabin on the beach, and learned to dive, and got PADI certified.  Every day we went into the beautiful clear water, diving and snorkelling.  The marine life was amazing, and you could see coral everywhere.  Over 180 species have been found in the Maldives – around 6000 have been found globally, differing depending on the depth and temperature of the sea.  We swam round our island - it wasn’t very big.  You could see concrete edges above the coral under the sand. 

So the coral … alive, growing, a living thing, based on a coral graveyard, under a layer of concrete, stifling growth, restricting light.  And a strange feeling now to think we were living and sleeping above that dichotomy.